The Manawatu Daily Times Britain’s Derelict Areas

Manawatu Times, Volume LIX, Issue 7459, 9 May 1934, Page 6

The Manawatu Daily Times Britain’s Derelict Areas

if Franco has (or had) her war-devastated areas, Britain has her derelict areas, almost hopelessly sunk in the slough of depression. A recent cable message described an cncouiaging movement to assist the workless northern districts bv the adoption of special areas by the civil servants of sixteen Uovexnment departments. Englisl) communities after the war similarly adopted ravaged Belgian and French towns and villages, making themselves responsible for their welfare. In Britain since the war there has been a drift in industry from north to south, and the derelict areas have lost some of their i'oimei importance. In the southern industrial area, including London, the proportion of men in employment to the workless is 86 to 14; in the county of Durham 87 men are out of work for every 63 in employment; in the shipbuilding district of Jarrow /5 men are unemployed for every 85 in work.

It might be said that not only are there Disraeli’s "two nations’’ of rich and poor, but the two nations of north and south. Conditions in areas once busy with the extraction of coal, the production of ships, and the manufacture of iron and steel are now examples of isolated and intense misery. The derelict areas are as clearly a separate part of the problem of unemployment as slum areas are a separate part of the problem .of housing. • They can be defined,'and they call for separate treatment. The areas arc becoming increasingly desolate, and the problem is one of saving whole communities, a large proportion of the people in which they have never worked regularly. It is easier to define the problem than to devise a policy for meeting it. A great effort directed to this specific purpose is needed. Everything in the distressed areas depends on the basic industries. In J arrow 32,000 people depend on shipbulding, and three-quarters of the workers are unemployed. It has been suggested that much could be done to revive the industry if older ships were scrapped and replaced with more up-to-date vessels. This might be a sound business proposition, since it is possible to build vessels now at a comparatively small cost per ton. A vessel built for £85,000 will run a knot faster than her competitor of ten years ago, and with a consumption of coal 25 per cent. less.

The South of England has progressed, while the North has become largely derelict. In the South there are industries that are far more likely to expand than to contract in the future, such as wireless, motor-cars and aircraft, all of which require a high percentage of skilled workers whom it is often difficult to get. The suggestion has been made that there should be some industrial training for the unemployed to fit them for new occupations. There seems little hope of industrial revival in many of the derelict areas, and migration to other parts may be the best remedy for those able to take advantage of it. Some of the industries of the South might be introduced into the derelict areas themselves. Reorganisation of industry might also help, but any large and concerted measure of reorganisation of such industries as iron and steel has been made difficult by the opposition of owners and manufacturers. The problem of the derelict areas is grave, but it is also local, and much might be done by local development associations aiming at the establishment of new industries, thus giving new hope. A concentrated effort by local authorities and the nation would do much to check decay and restore the communal health of these stricken districts.